The CRMS Organic-Garden Learning Center & Kitchen

Sustainability is inevitably linked to food. At Colorado Rocky Mountain School, the kitchen and the organic garden work together to provide food that is not only healthy for students and staff but also for the environment.

In a New York Times article, titled “Farmer in Chief,” Michael Pollan states, “After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy—19 percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do—as much as 37 percent, according to one study.” At the CRMS Garden, food is produced organically, minimizing the effects on the environment from both cultural practices and transportation. Here students, rather than machines, provide the bulk of the labor, compost from the food waste on campus nourishes the soil, processing is virtually eliminated, and transportation from the garden to the kitchen is done by bike or solar-powered electric vehicle.

The CRMS garden has six elements: organic gardens and orchard, a nursery, a composting program, campus landscaping, public demonstration area of water-wise plants, and a summer internship. While all the elements play an important role, it is the organic gardens and composting program that result in a unique relationship with the school’s kitchen.

Currently the 1.5-acre organic garden produces carrots, onions, beets, raspberries, leeks, kale, Swiss chard, ten different types of lettuces, cabbage, brussel sprouts, cucumbers, peppers, potatoes, four varieties of summer squash, six varieties of winter squash, rhubarb, asparagus, ten varieties of greenhouse tomatoes, tomatillas, turnips, rutabagas, green and yellow beans, eggplant, cucumbers, hot and sweet peppers, garlic, basil, and 15 culinary herbs. In addition, the orchards produce apples and apricots.

One-hundred percent of this harvest goes to the CRMS kitchen program. Beginning in mid-March, students and staff start bringing in the fruit and vegetables and continue through late November. While the students are gone for the two summer months, only 10% of the harvested foods are served to visiting groups and staff. The rest is frozen or pickled for later consumption. In the fall when the students return, CRMS celebrates the harvest with a Sustainability Dinner for 250 guests--including students, family members, and staff. Over 90% of the food comes from the garden.

Throughout the year, 33% of the produce (over 10,000 pounds in 2009) utilized by the school will have originated from the CRMS garden. With the on-going expansion of the garden program, this contribution will exceed 12,000 pounds annually by the 2011 season.

In addition to the food harvest, all of the food waste and paper products from the cafeteria are collected and composted by a student work crew. During the nine months that school is in session, this comprises 750 pounds of waste weekly. The composting piles are ready for spreading on the gardens within a year. This composting effort keeps over 31,000 pounds of waste out of the landfill annually

The CRMS Garden serves as a community resource for local educators.

Seasonal work opportunities in the garden:
• Assistant Garden Coordinator
• Garden interns
Contact: gardens@crms.org

The CRMS Kitchen

With a vision to provide healthy, nutritious, sustainable meals to the students, similar to the types of meals she would provide for her own family, Kitchen Manager Fiona Pax-O’Donnell focuses on eliminating processed and unnatural foods and using locally grown and organic foods whenever possible.

In support of the school’s environmental mission, the CRMS kitchen is committed to using as much local and organic produce as possible. The garden provides 20% of the school’s annual produce, campus chickens provide eggs, and meat frequently comes from campus and locally farmed animals. All of this bounty is prepared lovingly for the school community’s consumption.

The kitchen further supports the school's sustainability ethic by educating the school community through periodic e-mails about the sources of the school’s food, using environmentally friendly cleaning products, using disposable paper products produced with renewable or recycled content, eliminating trays in the food line to cut down on waste and water use, and making all large gatherings such as graduation Zero-Waste events.